title: How large are actor and partner effects of personality on relationship satisfaction? The importance of controlling for shared method variance.
abstract: Previous research suggests that the personality of a relationship partner predicts not only the individual's own satisfaction with the relationship but also the partner's satisfaction. Based on the actor-partner interdependence model, the present research tested whether actor and partner effects of personality are biased when the same method (e.g., self-report) is used for the assessment of personality and relationship satisfaction and, consequently, shared method variance is not controlled for. Data came from 186 couples, of whom both partners provided self- and partner reports on the Big Five personality traits. Depending on the research design, actor effects were larger than partner effects (when using only self-reports), smaller than partner effects (when using only partner reports), or of about the same size as partner effects (when using self- and partner reports). The findings attest to the importance of controlling for shared method variance in dyadic data analysis.
authors.affiliation: 1University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Orth
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015982:Bias; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010551:Personality; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Big Five personality traits; actor–partner interdependence model; dyadic data analysis; relationship satisfaction; self- and partner reports